Ngāti Huarere Ki Whangapoua Mauri Model Analysis
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Ngāti Huarere ki Whangapoua Mauri Model Analysis Tamoko Ormsby BE (Engineering Science) Dr Te Kipa Kepa Brian Morgan BE (Civil), GradDipBus, MBA, PhD, FIPENZ , CPEng 1 Executive Summary The Whangapoua Harbour is located within the Ngāti Huarere region, on the northeast of the Coromandel Peninsula. Ngāti Huarere are considered kaitiaki of the harbour. Today, the harbour is a popular destination for holidaymakers and tourists. With approximately 350‐400 permanent residents, this number can spike to over 7200 in the holiday season; far exceeding the operating capacity of the Matarangi Wastewater Treatment Plant; the municipal wastewater management system. It is within the scope of this project to analyse the situation that Ngāti Huarere have become so concerned about. The concept of Mauri has been introduced to analyse the overall state of well‐being of the harbour. This incorporates the four dimensions of well‐being; environmental, economic, social and cultural. Ngāti Huarere have provided a set of sustainability indicators, with an accompanying set of worldview weightings whilst other stakeholder worldviews have been extracted through proxy indications in the literature that has been discussed in this report. These stakeholder bias values have been used in a stakeholder analysis to capture an objective and quantitative measure of the mauri of the Whangapoua harbour. From the analysis conducted using the Mauri Model, it can concluded that the mauri of the Whangapoua Harbour is diminishing, heading toward an unsustainable state. A worldview analysis shows that stakeholders perceive and agree with the overall decrease in mauri. This report provides all stakeholders with an in‐depth holistic analysis of the Whangapoua harbour that quantifies concerns of Ngāti Huarere surrounding the trending decrease in mauri. It is recommended that a healthy and working relationship between Ngāti Huarere, Thames‐Coromandel District Council and Waikato Regional Council be established to recognise and respect Ngāti Huarere as kaitiaki of the area. This relationship will provide a platform for all parties to begin a process of re‐consenting the Matarangi Wastewater Treatment Plant, with the ambition of upgrading or completely replacing the existing plant. With the impending expiry of the current resource consent, this re‐consenting process should be actioned immediately. Figure 1. Whangapoua Beach (Drok, 2011) Table of Contents Introduction ___________________________________________________________________ 1 Mauri ________________________________________________________________________ 2 Background ___________________________________________________________________ 3 An Indigenous Perspective of Water __________________________________________________ 3 The Whangapoua Harbour __________________________________________________________ 3 Legislation _______________________________________________________________________ 5 Sustainability ____________________________________________________________________ 6 Objective _____________________________________________________________________ 7 Methodology _________________________________________________________________ 8 Mauri Model _____________________________________________________________________ 8 Mauri‐years _____________________________________________________________________________ 9 Aspirations of Ngāti Huarere _______________________________________________________________ 9 Stakeholders ___________________________________________________________________________ 9 Indicators _______________________________________________________________________ 11 Environmental __________________________________________________________________________ 11 Cultural ________________________________________________________________________________ 11 Economic _____________________________________________________________________________ 12 Social _________________________________________________________________________________ 12 Results ______________________________________________________________________ 13 Discussions ___________________________________________________________________ 15 Conclusions __________________________________________________________________ 16 References ___________________________________________________________________ 17 Appendix A ‐ Sustainability Indicators _____________________________________________ 21 Environmental Wellbeing ‐ Ecosystem Mauri __________________________________________ 21 Cultural Wellbeing ‐ Hapū Mauri ____________________________________________________ 22 Economic Wellbeing ‐ Whanau Mauri ________________________________________________ 23 Social Wellbeing – Community Mauri _______________________________________________ 24 Appendix B – Mauri Model Analysis Results ________________________________________ 25 Appendix C – Supporting Documentation __________________________________________ 31 i Whangapoua Beach ii Figure 2. Map of Whangapoua (Image courtesy of Google Maps) Introduction Huarere is the eponymous ancestor of the Ngāti Huarere hapū. Huarere was the grandson of Te Arawa chief, Tama‐te‐kapua, and son of Tuhoro, therefore Ngāti Huarere share genealogical links with Te Arawa (Graham, 1923). Originally based in the lower Coromandel area, warfare between adjacent hapū (peoples) resulted in the emigration of Huarere and his followers to the northern districts of the Coromandel. Those who descend from the Ngāti Huarere hapu that immigrated to this area are today known as Ngāti Huarere ki Whangapoua. Today, the harbour is a popular destination for holidaymakers and tourists. With approximately 350‐400 permanent residents, this number can spike to over 7200 in the holiday season. This far exceeds the operating capacity of the Matarangi Wastewater Treatment Plan; the municipal wastewater management system1. Ngāti Huarere ki Whangapoua2 are concerned about the well‐being of the Whangapoua Harbour. It provides key resources for the hapū and is a vehicle for the transfer of traditional knowledge of mahinga kai and manaakitanga. Furthermore, Ngāti Huarere are concerned about discharge from the Matarangi Wastewater Treatment Plant during times of peak operation. This is seen by Ngāti Huarere as having adverse effects on the mauri of the harbour and threatens the geographical and cultural relationship that Ngāti Huarere share with the harbour. To understand the scope of the project, many key concepts must be understood. Indigenous knowledge systems must be involved to understand the perspective that Ngāti Huarere have toward the ecosystem, and furthermore their responsibilities as kaitiaki. It is imperative that indigenous knowledge be incorporated as it is, in many instances, incompatible with generic ‘western’ models (White, 2006). Morgan (2008) argues that cultural understanding is essential as contemporary legislations requires consideration of environmental, cultural, social and economic effects. Sustainability, and the method by which one defines this concept, must be highlighted in both a western and indigenous people’s context. Due to the quantitative nature of the analysis, it is within the scope of the project to consider existing methods and tools that are currently used to determine the level of ‘sustainability’ of a system. The Mauri Model (Morgan, 2006a) utilises mauri as a holistic indicator of the four dimensions of well‐ being by virtue of Section 5 of the Resource Management Act 1991; these are environmental, economic, social and cultural3. The Mauri Model will include societal and cultural effects in the assessment of the Whangapoua Harbour to acknowledge the status of the Ngāti Huarere hapū as kaitiaki. 1 Thames‐coromandel proposed district plan, (2013). 2 The terms ‘Ngati Huarere ki Whangapoua’ and ‘Ngati Huarere’ will be used interchangeably, both referring to Ngati Huarere ki Whangapoua. 3 Resource management act, 69, (1991). Page 1 Mauri Mauri is a concept that permeates all Maori thinking. It is the binding force between the physical and spiritual components of all things being (Morgan, 2006a). Mauri is the natural holistic force that allows all things to exist synchronously and harmoniously (Marsden & Royal, 2003). Mauri is considered the spark of life that all things hold (Williams, 2006). All things are deemed to have mauri; people, fish, animals and birds, land, seas and rivers (Te Maire Tau, Anake Goodall, Palmer, & Tau, 1990). Morgan (2008) highlights many cultures that share a similar spiritual concept based around the connection between all things. This alludes to the acceptability of the concept of mauri within many indigenous knowledge systems (Morgan, 2008). Such examples include Qi; a traditional Chinese concept of the ‘life force’ that exists in all things (Wu, Cheng, Fang, & He, 2013), Mana; a concept found in the culture of the indigenous people of Hawai’i (Marshall, 2011) and Thymos; the Grecian concept pertaining to, what is referred to today as, consciousness, awareness and thought. Mauri is also akin to the Asmat value of ja asamanam apcamar, interpreted as “keep in balance” (Wambrauw & Morgan, 2014). Western culture popularize a “binding, metaphysical, and ubiquitous power” in the fictional universe of Star Wars, aptly named ‘The Force’ (Wikipedia Contributors, 2015). Morgan (2006) uses the discussion above to justify the suitability of mauri as a measure of sustainability. The preservation of mauri controls the sustainability of a resource. The goal of the inhabitants of the ecosystem is to ensure the mauri of all